THE ASTOUNDING CRIME ON TORRINGTON ROAD. By William Gillette. (Cassell.
7s. 6d.) — Though this novel is ingenious in the ramifications of its plot, its chief interest for the reader lies in a comparison between English and American detective fiction. The English author generally puts the crime in the forefront ; the reader being generally introduced at once to the corpse. Not so the us the best. - American detective fiction-requires to be followed -
with the closest attention, and -there are long passages of -
secondary interest which must be mastered if the final solution - • -
is to be comprehended. The fault ..of . Mr. Gillette's novel A _Library IAst.
seems to lithi the extreme improbability of the master criminal allowing himself to be tried for murder on grounds which can only be controverted by evidence which must be evoked at exactly the right moment. The psychology of the American crook must be very different from that of the English, for it is difficult to believe that any English criminal would put himself so nearly under the shadow of the gallows. As a side-issue, the account of the detective bureau employed by spiritualistic mediums is illuminating reading, and one would be glad to know if this organization actually exists across the Atlantic.
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